Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Clara Caterpillar will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of individuality, this Clara Caterpillar picture book by Pamela Duncan Edwards is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Clara Caterpillar Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Clara Caterpillar. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Clara Caterpillar reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
CLARA CATERPILLAR SUMMARY
The book, Clara Caterpillar, tells the story of a cabbage caterpillar named Clara. Her mother laid an egg on a cabbage leaf one day and flew away. Many of the other caterpillars hatched before Clara, she was cautious about coming out. When Clara hatched, she quickly became friends with Cornelius the caterpillar. Catisha, another caterpillar, would tease Clara for being a common cabbage caterpillar. Eventually, all of the caterpillars made their chrysalis. When they turned into butterflies, everyone was amazed by Catisha’s copper colored wings. Catisha teased Clara for having cream-colored wings.
One day, a crow came along and started to chase Catisha. Thankfully, Clara came to the rescue. She caught the bird’s attention then camouflaged into a flower. The crow was confused and forgot all about Catisha and flew away. Everyone cheered for Clara and they were amazed by her courage. Catisha realized how lucky Clara was to be creamed colored. Clara was both courageous and content being cream-colored, just like her mother had wished for her.
CLARA CATERPILLAR LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Clara Caterpillar, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based Clara Caterpillar reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing character
- cause and effect
- identifying theme, message, moral
- making predictions
- summarizing / retelling
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- individuality
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- adverbs
- articles
- plural nouns
- adjectives
CLARA CATERPILLAR ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Clara Caterpillar?
- Lexile® Measure: AD550L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Pamela Duncan Edwards. It was illustrated by Henry Cole.
What genre is Clara Caterpillar?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 40 pages long.